Transcript a checklist of linguistic and stylistic categories

BBL 3207
Introduction
A CHECKLIST OF LINGUISTIC AND STYLISTIC CATEGORIES
• The categories are placed under four general headings:
lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of
speech, and cohesion and context.
• Semantic categories are not listed separately, since it is
easier to arrive at these through other categories; for
example, through analysis of lexical categories we could
find out how choice of words involves various types of
meaning.
• It is also in the nature of things that categories will
overlap, so that the same feature may well be noted
under different headings.
A CHECKLIST OF LEXICAL CATEGORIES
1. GENERAL. Is the vocabulary simple or complex?
formal or colloquial? descriptive or evaluative?
general or specific? How far does the writer make use
of the emotive and other associations of words, as
opposed to their referential meaning? Does the text
contain idiomatic phrases, and if so, with what kind of
dialect or register (iii) are these idioms associated? Is
there any use of rare or specialized vocabulary? Are
any particular morphological categories noteworthy
(e.g. compound words, words with particular suffixes)?
To what semantic fields. do words belong?
2. NOUNS. Are the nouns abstract (society/idea) or concrete
(house/cat)? What kinds of abstract nouns occur (e.g.
nouns referring to events (war/eruption), perceptions
(understanding //consciousness), processes (development),
moral qualities (virtue), social qualities (bravery)? What
use is made of proper names? collective noun
(people/staff)s?
3. ADJECTIVES. Are the adjectives frequent? To what kinds of
attribute do adjectives refer? Physical (woolen)?
Psychological (joyful)? Visual (square/snowy)? Auditory
(bubbling/sizzling)? Color (dark/red)? Referential (big
dog/white house)? Emotive (exited/happy)? Evaluative
(good/fat/ bad/lazy)? etc. Are adjectives restrictive (the
exact
answer)
or
non-restrictive?
Gradable
(young/tall/useful) or non— gradable (atomic/British)?
attributive (an utter fool )or predicative (he is ashore )?
4. VERBS. Do the verbs carry an important part of the
meaning? Are they stative (cost/believe/remain) or
dynamic (walk/arrive)? Do they 'refer' to
movements (climb/jump/slide), physical acts
(spread/smell/taste/laugh) or speech acts
(persuade/decline/beg), psychological states or
activities
(think/feel/imagine/know/love),
perceptions (see/hear/feel), etc? Are they
transitive (kick the ball), intransitive (the ball is
kicked), linking (be/sound/seem/taste/ smell), etc?
Are they (know/regret/forget/remember) or nonfactive (believe/assume/consider/suppose/ think/
imagine)?
5. ADVERBS. Are adverbs frequent? What semantic
functions do they perform (manner (anxiously/
carefully/
loudly/
willingly),
place
(away/along/across/upstairs/elsewhere), direction
(backwards/forward/up/down/in/out),
time
(ago/already/finally/shortly/immediately), degree
(almost/completely/partly/deeply/much), etc)? Is
there any significant use of sentence adverbs
(conjuncts such as so, therefore, however; disjuncts
such as certainly, obviously, frankly) ?
Practice
• In the next slide you will find a poem by Stephen
Crane.
• Work out which choice that you think Crane actually
made, and to work out why you think your choice is
preferable, taking into account the effects at
different linguistic levels that one choice or another
has in relation to the rest of the poem.
I stood
on
upon
in
And saw, below many devils
Running, leaping
And
living
indulging
carousing
a high
place
mountain
hill
in sin.
One looked up, grinning,
And said
“Comrade! Brother!”
“Join us!”
“Help me!”
(Stephen Crane)
I stood
upon
And saw, below many devils
Running, leaping
And
carousing
a high
place
in sin.
One looked up, grinning,
And said
“Comrade! Brother!”
(Stephen Crane)
A CHECKLIST OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES
1. SENTENCE TYPES. Does the author use only
statements (declarative sentences), or does he also
use questions, commands, exclamations. or minor
sentence types such as sentences with no verb)? If
these other types are used, what is their function?
2 SENTENCE COMPLEXITY. Do sentences on the whole have a simple
or a complex structure? What is the average sentence length (in
number of words)? What is the ratio of dependent to independent
clauses complexity vary strikingly from one sentence to another? Is
complexity mainly due to (i) coordination, (ii) subordination, (iii)
parataxis (juxtaposition of clauses or other equivalent structures)?
In what parts of a sentence does complexity tend to occur? For
instance, is there any notable occurrence of anticipatory structure
(e.g. of complex subjects preceding the verbs, of dependent
clauses preceding the subject of a main clause)?
3 CLAUSE TYPES. What types of dependent clause are
favored:relative clauses, adverbial clauses, different types of
nominal clauses (that—clauses, wh—clauses, etc)? Are reduced or
non-finite clauses commonly used, and if so, of what type are they
(infinitive clauses, —ing clauses, —ed clauses, verbless clauses)?
4 CLAUSE STRUCTURE. Is there anything significant about clause
elements (eg frequency of objects, complements, adverbials;
of transitive or intransitive verb constructions)? Are there any
unusual orderings (initial adverbials, fronting of object or
complement, etc)? Do special kinds of clause construction
occur? (Such as those with preparatory it or there)?
5 NOUN PHRASES. Are they relatively simple or complex?
Where does the complexity lie (in pre-modification by
adjectives, nouns, etc, or in post-modification by
prepositional phrases, relative clauses, etc)? Note occurrence
of listings (eg sequences of adjectives), coordination, or
apposition.
6 VERB PHRASES. Are there any significant departures from the use
of the simple past tense? For example, notice occurrences and the
functions of the present tense; of the progressive aspect (eg was
lying); of the perfective aspect (eg has/had appeared); o modal
auxiliaries (eg can, must, would, etc).
7 OTHER PHRASE TYPES. Is there anything to be said about other
phrase types: prepositional phrases, adverb phrases adjective
phrases?
8 WORD CLASSES. Having already considered major or lexical word
classes, we may here consider minor word classes (‘function
words’): prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, determiners,
auxiliaries, interjections. Are particular words of these types used
for particular effect (eg the definite or indefinite article; first
person pronouns I, we, etc; demonstratives such as this and that;
negative words such as not, nothing, no) ?
9 GENERAL. Note here whether any general types of grammatical
construction are used to special effect e.g. comparative or
superlative constructions; coordinative or listing constructions;
parenthetical. constructions; appended or interpolated
structures such as occur in casual speech. Do lists and coordinations (e.g. lists of nouns) tend to occur with two, three or
more than three members?
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
Apart from the message being communicated, what other kind of
information does the utterance give us?
1. Does it tell us which specific person used it?
(Individuality)
2. Does it tell us where in the country he is from?
(Regional dialect)
3. Does it tell us which social class he belongs to?
(Class dialect)
4. Does it tell us during which period of English he spoke or wrote it, or
how old he was?
(Time)
5. Does it tell us whether he was speaking or writing?
(Discourse medium)
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
6. Does it tell us whether he was speaking or writing as an end in itself,
or as a means to a further end?
(Simple v complex discourse medium)
7.Does it tell us whether there was only one participant in the utterance,
or whether there was more than one?
(Discourse participation)
8. Does it tell us whether the monologue and dialogue are independent,
or are to be considered as part of a wider type of discourse?
(Simple v complex discourse participation)
9. Does it tell us which specific occupational activity the user is engaged
in?
(Province)
10. Does it tell us about the social relationship existing between the
user and his interlocutors?
(Status)
11. Does it tell us about the purpose he had in mind when conveying
the message?
(Modality)
12. Does it tell us that the user was being deliberately idiosyncratic?
(Singularity)
Varieties of English Usage
• Idiolect – individual’s special unique style of
linguistic mannerisms
• Accents and dialects - Influenced and shaped by the
regional origins and socioeconomic background of
speakers
- Dialects: distinguished by patterns in grammar
and vocabulary
- Accents: distinguished through patterns of
pronunciation
Dialects:
•regional - different areas
•social - social class or section of the community
English poets - ever since the fifteenth century,
there has been a privileged dialect, a STANDARD
ENGLISH, to which any writer wishing to
command the attention of a wide educated
audience